Data Source Editing

The Running Reality desktop app can make direct edits to a range of data source file types.

Overview

Running Reality can act as a simple editor to make direct edits to a range of data source file types, reducing the need to transfer files back and forth between multiple desktop applications.

Tabular Data

Editing a table is as simple as clicking in a data cell and making the text edit. Running Reality is a simple editor and does not support Microsoft Excel formulas.

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

For XLS files and SQL databases that have multiple tables, there is a tab/table selector at the bottom of the viewer. Use this to switch tabs/tables to view and edit other data.

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

Autosaving Microsoft Excel XLS files is currently disabled due to an error that can corrupt the XLS file.

RDF Data

An RDF file is a Resource Description Framework (RDF) file. The file consists of statements in "tuples", where a tuple is a subject → predicate → object. These tuples may also be saved in alternative but functionally identical file formats such as N-Triples (.nt), Turtle (.ttl), JSON-LD (.json) or RDF/XML (.rdf). This is the most common interchange format for Linked Open Data (LOD) in historical disciplines or other disciplines. Running Reality provides a simple tuple editor so that you can make edits to an RDF file within a Running Reality workflow.

RDF Concepts

The basic viewer shows each tuple organized as a tree under the subject. Note: the tuples may not be organized in this way in the file itself. Each predicate is a branch under the subject, then each object is a single leaf under each predicate. In the example below, the predicate is temporal and the object is start=-270;end=-230

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

You can add a new statement representing a new tuple by clicking the "add statement" button in the toolbar when you have a subject selected. The tuple editor opens for the selected subject and you can then select a new predicate and new object. The predicate has a drop down menu to show the predicates available from the ontologies already defined in the RDF file.

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

To view the ontologies that are currently defined, you can select the "show ontologies" button in the toolbar. A subject may have to be selected first in the sidebar.

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

This is a simple RDF editor with basic features. Note that it auto-saves your changes and does not have an undo function. Your computer operating system may have version control to retain each saved version. Additional editing features will be added over time.

GeoJSON

A GeoJSON file is a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file that has a specific structure to represent "features," a standard definition of a geographical object. Each feature has a geometry that can be a point, line, or polygon. Each feature may also have a series of properties. There is no standard for properties, but there are conventions that a property with the key "name" is used as the feature's name. Style information can also be set as properties, though only some GIS applications and web viewers follow this convention. Running Reality also uses the GeoJSON-T extension that adds a "when" to each feature to represent when the feature exists in time.

To add a simple empty feature, click the "add" button. To add a feature based on a Running Reality object, click "add from selection" to select a Running Reality object. This is the primary way to export selected Running Reality data to GeoJSON. To add a new polygon representing the geotemporal extent of other data, click "add from extent." There is a separate tutorial that explores "add from extent" further.

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

When in editing mode, this is the view of a single editable GeoJSON feature. To edit the geometry, click the "edit" button next to the geometry.

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

The geometry editor lets you edit the point coordinate, or switch it. There is also an in-map editor to edit the vertices of the point, line, or polygon.

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

The drop-down menu lets you switch the geometry type between point, line, and polygon.

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

The property editor has a "+" button to add new properties to the feature. You need to enter a key and value for each property. The GeoJSON standard does not specify particular keys to have specific meaning.

A Running Reality world is comprised of user layers, user factoids, and the baseline factoids.

Basic properties that Running Reality recognizes:

Mapbox "SimpleStyle" properties that Running Reality recognizes that are also recognized by many other GIS apps or web services:

More about SimpleStyle